Wondering why visit LBJ National Historic Park?

Longhorns, oil wells, and Presidents.

Texas has proven in the last fifty years to produce more than cattle or oil. It’s a state that has seen the birth of quite a few American Presidents. And like all things Texan – the approach to these has a singular Lone Star flavor.

Come visit LBJ National Historic Park and get a taste of Texas history, architecture, and a general sense of what life was and is like in the Texas Hill Country.

History

A President’s home – Texas style.

The LBJ Ranch House was home to President Johnson and bustled with political activity for decades. But don’t expect to feel like another other President’s home. This isn’t at all like the Roosevelt mansion on the Hudson. Nor is it a Monticello, although Thomas Jefferson’s roots where also knee deep in agriculture.

It’s one of those things to see in Texas that’s like no where else. Visiting the park you’ll quickly feel that the history found here is different than political homes in the East.

Spending time at LBJ National Historic Park you are visiting a place where leaders from around the world were hosted. Politics, local, national, and international was always on the daily chore list. So much so, that during the Johnson Administration it acquired the nickname the “Texas White House.” It can be said that Johnson was the first of our Presidents to have a functioning “White House away from Washington”.

Donated to the National Park Service in 1972, “Lady Bird Johnson,” President Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife continued to live in the home until her death in 2007. She continued to display many of the gifts the Johnson’s received from around the world and many can still be seen today. The national park service refers to the Texas White House is “a house full of gifts that’s a gift to our nation.”

Architecture

The oldest parts of the home where originally built in 1894 by a German immigrant named William “Polecat” Meier (and came into the Johnson family as soon as 1909.) The home is a good example of vernacular architecture where local resources, in this case limestone block and local woods, were used. The home has a sprawling and gracious feel to it while it sticks to its “farmhouse” roots.

Serenity of the Texas Hill Country

To come out to LBJ National Historical Park is to step away from today’s world. You get a chance to see Texas as it was in the cattle ranching days of the 1950’s. The state of Texas feels it’s important to maintain it this way.

“Maintaining the rural agricultural setting of the ranch is key to an understanding of the isolation of the Hill Country during the president’s youth, the work ethic of its inhabitants, an understanding of a Texas cattle operation, and the origin of many of the president’s ideas, programs, and legislative concerns.”

— Per http://www.nps.gov/lyjo/naturescience/index.htm

Close to Fredericksburg

Situated just outside Stonewall, 15 minutes from Fredericksburg – touring the Texas White House should definitely be on your list of things to see in Texas.